Saturday, February 24, 2007

The Leader of the Future 2 follows in the footsteps of the international bestseller The Leader of the Future, which has sold hundreds of thousands of copies, been translated into twenty-eight languages, and is one of the most widely distributed collections on leadership to date.

In twenty-seven inspiring and insightful essays, this book celebrates the wisdom of some of the most recognized thought leaders of our day who share their unique visions of leadership for the future.

Our post-9/11 world presents new and unexpected challenges for present and future leaders, and the articles in this book reaffirm, reconsider, and expand on the basic principles and values of leadership as they apply to emerging and unforeseen challenges, opportunities, and trends.

This diverse group of authors speaks to all of us--inspiring, guiding, and sustaining leaders of today and tomorrow, delivering a battle cry that will mobilize the leaders of the future in our increasingly turbulent and uncertain world.

Friday, February 23, 2007

"How can we bring forth America greatness? By changing the way leaders lead. Too often our civic and corporate leaders seem self-serving, when the true road to our country's greatness lies in values, integrity and service to others." -Jon Kramer, President, San Diego Leadership Initiative (SDLI)

The SDLI Mission is to train and educate San Diego’s nonprofit, profit and civic leaders in Servant (Service-Based) Leadership, and promote projects and initiatives furthering the 10 Values of Servant Leadership.

This new blog focuses on advancing the role and impact of leadership in economic development. It is called the Economic Development Leader (ED Leader). You can find it on the Web at: http://econdevleader.blogspot.com

Note: ED Leaderreplaces ED Futures, which was published by Don Iannone over the past four years. Because of the huge need for leadership development in economic development, Don has decided to re-focus his attention and energy in this specific area.

Giving leadership to economic development efforts is no simple matter; just ask any economic development organization CEO or board member. In recognition of this challenge, Don Iannone, a longstanding consultant and advisor to urban and rural economic development organizations across America and internationally, has created this blog to spark a dialogue with economic development leaders about the key issues they face and how to address them.

Let's start with a definition of leadership. Leadership is defined primarily by what we do, not by the role we have been assigned. Good leadership starts with our inner intentions, it is guided by values, and it possesses clarity and vision about what is most important. Authentic leadership is important to me personally. Authentic leadership occurs when our intentions and actions are aligned and in service to the highest purpose possible in a given situation.

As many other leadership experts have said: "Who we are comes before what we do!" The economist Kenneth Boulding reminds us that: "the meaning of a message is the change which it produces in the image." This is an important point for us to bear in mind as we think about how leadership is applied to economic development at the local, regional and state levels. What change for the good have we produced in our exercise of leadership in economic development?

ED Leader will do two things. First, it will examine and discuss leadership issues encountered in economic development. Second, it will reach out into the larger field of leadership for the best ideas that can help advance economic development leadership. Hopefully by doing these two things, you will be motivated to jump into the conversation with your ideas. The dialogue is vital for all of us to give shape to ourselves as leaders in economic development.

One final point deserves clarification. When I use the term economic development leader, I am referring to those serving on economic development leadership bodies and boards, as well as the economic development professional. Both give vital leadership to economic development efforts.

I hope this new resource is valuable to you and helps you as an economic development leader. Please feel free to email me with your ideas, or better yet, post a comment to this blog.

Cleveland, Ohio (My Hometown)

Don's LinkedIn Profile

Don is a health care management consultant, Reiki master, student of Zen and Thomas Merton's teachings, teacher, life coach, author, poet, and photographer. He is a Certified Reiki Master, holds an M.A. Degree in Consciousness Studies, with extensive studies in Buddhism and meditation, and he has completed graduate studies in Organizational Behavior and Economic Development. He holds an undergraduate degree in Anthropology. He and his wife Mary practice Reiki in the Greater Cleveland area.